Understanding the breadth of missed primary aldosteronism diagnosis in Australians with Hypertension

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common endocrine secondary cause of hypertension. Historically, it was believed to affect <1% of hypertensive patients but more recent research has highlighted that about 10-15% of treatment naive hypertensives and ~30% of patients with resistant hypertension have PA. Sadly, many Australians still suffer from missed or delayed diagnosis even though it is acknowledged that missed or delayed PA diagnosis leaves patients at increased risk of many chronic conditions e.g. stroke, renal disease, cardiovascular diseases, etc compared to those with essential hypetension. In this study, we seek to examine national data to estimate the proportion of hypertensive patients, without PA, who may benefit from PA investigations as well as explore long term health outcomes for these patients. Eligible patients will be identified through the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), which would then be linked to national databases. The findings from this study will highlight areas that require improvement and population groups that could be targetted for PA screening campaigns.